Holsters are well-known articles for carrying and/or concealing guns and other weapons or items on a user's body or within reach of the user, such as within a pocket, handbag, or other personal item. Many holsters are designed for wearing by a user on a belt or waistband of the user's pants, while others include harnesses or straps for wearing around the torso, arms, legs, ankles or the like. Gun holsters are typically employed for carrying handguns, i.e. smaller, handheld guns that can be fired single-handedly. These holsters are often designed or formed to fit a particular style or model of gun so as to provide a secure and stable fit between the gun and holster. Such holsters may also be specifically designed for wearing on a particular side of the user to accommodate either a left-handed or right-handed user.
Due to the great number of types and styles of guns available and the need to accommodate both right- and left-handed users, manufacturers must produce a large variety of holsters to fit the broad spectrum of customer needs. And users must purchase specific, and likely multiple, holsters to accommodate each of the guns they wish to carry and each method of carrying they wish to employ, e.g. right-handed, left-handed, concealed, etc.
A variety of attempts have been made to overcome these deficiencies. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,003,670 to Stella discloses a leather gun holster with a simple generally tubular pocket structure that can be worn on the belt of the user. The pocket has a uniform design that can receive a handgun in either a right- or a left-handed orientation. The pocket is not designed for a specific gun but is limited to a relatively narrow selection of guns with dimensions that fit within the narrow pocket.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,787 to Hersey describes a holster that includes loops or apertures through which a user's belt is inserted for wearing on the inside or outside of the belt. The holster can be inverted to switch between a forward-tilted and a cross-draw orientation and can be reversed laterally to switch between a right-handed orientation and a left-handed orientation. The design of the holster requires the holster to be sized according to the particular gun to be carried.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,258,259 to Owens discloses a molded semi-universal holster that is useable with a variety of sizes, styles, and calibers of gun but is not ambidextrous and is limited to a particular model line of gun, e.g. the holster is limited to, for example, a model line of semi-automatic guns or revolvers that are of generally the same size and shape. The holster includes a series of adjustment springs and molded stops that are useable to customize the tension between a gun receptacle and a gun disposed therein.
What is needed in the art is a holster that that is configured to universally receive the vast majority of available handguns and to securely retain a selected gun therein. Such a holster that is also wearable in a right- or left-handed orientation and in a concealed or open-carry fashion is also desirable.